This invention relates to magnetic field detectors and especially to an improved solid-state magnetic-field detector.
Currently, there are several types of magnetometers in use. The more prominent of these are the superconducting magnetometers, the gaseous magnetometers and the fluxgate units. Superconducting magnetometers are the most sensitive (about 10.sup.-5 .gamma./(Hz).sup.1/2), followed by the gaseous units (about 10.sup.-3 .gamma./(Hz).sup.1/2) and the fluxgate units (about 0.5 .gamma./(Hz).sup.1/2). A drawback of the sensitive superconducting units is the very low temperatures (liquid helium temperature, for example) required for their operation necessitating, the use of heavy and awkward equipment. A magnetic-field detector which requires no cooling apparatus and has excellent sensitivity would, therefore, be very desirable.